Episode 179: Must-Have Whelping Supplies for a Breeding Kennel

Dr. Andrea Hesser, a veterinarian specialized in theriogenology, provides a comprehensive overview of what you need in your whelping toolkit. The presentation covers essential and emerging approaches to pregnancy management, whelping equipment and support, and early puppy care. This review is not only for people with free-whelping breeds, but also for those who are planning elective C-sections.

Watch the video version of the presentation here. We'll be back in January for more educational podcast episodes!

Transcript

Nicole Engelman  00:04

Welcome to the Good Dog Pod. Join us every other Wednesday when we discuss all things dogs, from health and veterinary care to training and behavior science, as well as the ins and outs of Good Dog and how our platform can help you successfully run your breeding program. Follow us and join Good Dog’s mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them.

Nicole Engelman  00:28

Thank you all for joining us for what I believe is our last educational webinar of 2024, crazily enough. To close out an amazing year of educational content, we have a presentation on must-have whelping supplies for a breeding kennel—perfect for maybe your holiday wish list—and that's with our guest, Dr. Andrea Hesser, who is a board certified reproductive veterinarian. So if you've ever felt like you never have all of the things that you need for your pregnant dog’s impending labor, then this is a really great presentation for you. We're going to be discussing the essentials as well as some newer approaches in equipment and support for canine pregnancy, the whelping process, and managing puppies early in life. And it's not just for people with free whelping breeds, but also for those who are planning elective C-sections as well. So hopefully there is something for everybody joining us today. And of course, we are so excited to partner with Purina again to bring this webinar to you. It has been such an exciting experience for us to bring you—I believe it's somewhere around 20 webinars this past year with Purina across all different kinds of canine health topics. I feel like, as a community, we've all learned so much together, and we just can't thank our friends at Purina enough for helping make all of that possible. We have some previously submitted questions as always that we're going to prioritize first during the Q and A segment after Dr. Hesser's presentation. So stick around for that, and of course, ask questions throughout the presentation as well, using the chat, and we will do our best to get to those, too. I just want to share a little bit about Good Dog for anyone who is new and doesn't know about Good Dog: We are on a mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them by advocating for dog breeders, educating the public, and promoting canine health and responsible dog ownership through events just like this. We are a secure online community created just for responsible dog breeders to connect with serious, quality applicants from all across the country to find forever homes for your puppies. So if you're not yet a member of our community, we invite you to learn more and apply at GoodDog.com/join and please reach out if you have any questions about joining our community to breederteam@GoodDog.com and someone will be happy to answer those for you. And before I pass things over to Dr. Hesser to start her presentation, I just want to share a little bit more about her amazing background in canine health. Dr. Hesser is a board certified reproductive veterinarian who practices in small animal medicine in the Dallas, Fort Worth area. Her clinical time is spent in general practice veterinary medicine and reproductive consultations and surgery. Dr. Hesser also provides semen collection and health testing services at local dog shows. She's a long-time canine breeder and enthusiast with an interest in Whippets and Bullmastiffs. Her mission is to serve breeders by helping them achieve their goals with their breeding programs. So we could not be more united in that mission, because that is Good Dog’s as well. So with that, I'll pass it over to you, Dr. Hesser, to get the presentation started. 

Dr. Andrea Hesser, DVM, DACT  03:29

All right, thank you, Nicole. I hope everybody had a nice holiday and is prepared for the impending holidays. I was just a grocery store, and somebody asked me, “Do you have everything you need for Christmas?” I'm like, “Not in the slightest!” because what am I doing? I'm doing a lot of this stuff. So I have a bitch I'm about to breed, and it's been a hot minute. It's probably been three years since I've had puppies at my house, or had neonates at my house. So a lot of my supplies, like, I'm going through and trying to remember what I have, and, you know, switching up some things and adding some things. So I think, you know, this is one of those things. It depends on your level, I think, sometimes it's your breed, and who your mentorship has been—what kind of supplies you've been encouraged to have and keep on hand. The reality is, I think the more prepared you are, the better everything will go. I don't know if it's Murphy's Law, but you know the law would go: if you end up going and supplying everything under the sun and spending a whole bunch of money doing all the stuff, of course, your whelp will be perfect and nothing will go wrong, right? But if you don't, then the opposite happens. So I think preparation is key. So we're going to kind of go chronologically, if that makes sense. So we'll talk a little bit about pregnancy monitoring and things just to have on hand and be thinking about when you have a pregnant dog. Also, we are going to talk a little bit about support technology that's out there. Some breeders have acquired to acquire some used machines, or like ultrasound units, Dopplers, etc., that might be of use. Then we're going to talk a lot about whelping box options and pros and cons with different types. We're going to talk about the supplies for the actual whelp. So a lot of the supplies for C-sections and free whelps are going to be very similar. I think with the C-section whelps, usually you don't have to provide anything, right? So I think even if you have those breeds, it still might be wise to have some of the materials that you might need for support. Because, as you know, you go for a C-section and they kick you out three hours later, and then you're going to fend for your tools. So just things to be thinking about.

05:40

Neonatal support items: we’re mostly going to be talking about milk supplementation, tube feeding, bottle feeding, some of the odds and ends that I like to keep in my medical cabinet for puppies. We'll blaze over all of my background, but this is the bitch I’m about to breed. So that's my Bullmastiff Cavana, who I really hope—she comes from a litter of 13 and I'm reading her with frozen. So I will be happy with any number. The frozen, you know, it's old and special, as usual. But I just had a friend with another bitch down here, another Bullmastiff bitch that had 14 from old frozen, like four months ago, so I'm a little bit apprehensive. This is the first Bullmastiff bitch that I will have had a litter out of. And it's certainly a little bit more complicated, like you guys that might have Frenchies, Pugs, etc., but I think the take home with anything is just your mentors are going to help. So like, I was on the fence for this breed. I was on the fence about letting her free whelp. Well, when frozen semen became of interest for me, for her, I changed my gears, because I really don't want to have any stillbirth if I can avoid it, because of how important that semen is. So I think there's some breeds that are kind of on the fence. So like Goldens would be another example. A lot of people do elective C-sections for Goldens. Can they free whelp, or are you going to potentially be in a situation where you need to have supplies if you don't have an emergency option and your elective was supposed to be tomorrow and she’s in labor tonight? I think again, you know, it's good to have everything, just in case things don't go as planned. 

07:20

A lot of people, they'll start having these kind of prep plans once their bitch is pregnant. So this is a portable bitch that had, I think, 14 or 15 that we were able to count on ultrasound. But usually around this time, they're still going to look totally normal to you, right? So they might have some nipple changes, but there's not going to be really anything measurable that you can look at, but I think people start to focus a little bit on weight. I know it seems really basic, but we're going to talk about things like this as part of it. So a scale. If you have a big dog, these are not inexpensive to have, but if you have, like, a boarding kennel, if you do some boarding that comes and goes, I think a lot of professional kennel setups, even if it's just in our own breeding programs, people actually have their own scale. So just don't forget that's a really easy way to reassure yourself if you had some concern about her pregnancy and you just want something simple to be able to just reassure you. There's also a lot of support with girth measurement being supported that pregnancy is proceeding as it should. So like a soft tape measure: once they start to show, I mean, once they start to have some change in their abdomen, maybe five weeks gestation or so, you can start doing a tape measure around them and then just charting it. So kind of like charting weights just to say, “Yes, she is progressing forward.” It's tricky, because you have to measure them at the widest section that they are around their middle. And I think sometimes it can be a little bit tricky to do that, but there is actually some old data that says it is something that is proven to be a positive thing to track for owners at home.

09:01

So go through your medicine cabinet once she's confirmed, rearrange it. Hide things from yourself that you know are not good for pregnancy. I would say this is the best way to manage things. And make sure that everybody that's managing your dog at home—so whether it be kennel staff, your kids, your husband, etc.—we need to know everything that's going in her mouth. We don't want to be giving her anything, whether it be heartworm prevention, etc. We have to make sure that everything that we're giving her is safe. Here's just a short list. So I always keep probiotics. I think probiotics for bitches reduce a lot of issues with infections in general, like through pregnancy and post-pregnancy, but it can also just kind of head things off. So for some, they'll start to have softer stools. You know, I don't know that we know exactly why that happens, necessarily in pregnancy, but there are some dogs. I had a Ridgeback once, but I mean Diarrhea City for like, two weeks leading up to the term. And it’s one of the few things that we have, that we can really use very safely and not have to worry about things. But I think prophylaxis is key with probiotics for a lot of infection type things. Her body is immune compromised when she's pregnant, so she's going to be more likely to get infections, and the more good bacteria we provide, the less likely she's going to have issues. Propectolin has a probiotic in it. I'll be honest, I don't remember specifically what the probiotic inclusion is there. But just to mention, they have a gel that I really like, and they have tablets, too. The dogs hate the tablet. I hate to say! The powders that you put on the food, like FortiFlora—I mean, there's a bunch out there—but FortiFlora is the one that I'm most familiar with. There's one called Bene-bac that you can get online that I think worked well as the powder. The gel, though, is great because you can basically put it in their mouth or on the roof of their mouth, and they can't spit it out. The Pro-Pectalin tabs are these big, chunky things. But the nice thing is that product is not just a probiotic. It has pectin in it too, which helps to firm up stool. So I think some reproductive practices go through Pro-Pectalin tabs like candy. It's a really common product. I usually keep fish oil in my cabinet. So just a reminder: make sure that you're sourcing good products, mercury-free products or ones that have been properly vetted. Cold water fish oil should help to reduce early neonatal loss. So usually I'm using that early in pregnancy, but I usually just continue it. I don't like the idea of stopping something nutritious midway when I'm asking her to be pregnant and for her pregnancy to be healthy. I don't want to suddenly take away a bunch of the fat that she had been kind of adjusted to, so I usually just continue it until she’s to term. Most heartworm preventions are labeled for pregnancy. So you just need to check your individual product, depending on what you guys use. The ones that have tick inclusion—so there's lots of really popular ones now that have a heartworm prevention, flea and tick, all in the same product. The reality is, I always say, if they don't have a label, don't use them. If somebody gives one, is it going to be a nightmare? No. The isoxazoline family, which is like the Credelio, NexGuard, that whole group of oral flea and tick—most of those guys have not done testing. The only one that has is Bravecto. Bravecto, it's one of those things that you will hear all sorts of pros and cons. Lots of people like to talk, especially on the internet. Here we are, right? But there's lots of things you could Google and find about all of those products, about them not being good and killing dogs and all this stuff. And a lot of people try to take their dogs off prevention completely during pregnancy; I do not recommend that. Heartworm prevention is not harmful for pregnancy. You just want to use ones that we know are safe for pregnancy. Like that's kind of the whole idea with any drug. The flea and tick preventions of Bravecto have gotten a lot of attention because they’re labeled for neuro and for pregnancy, because their label says it’s safe. It has a neuro history warning, basically. So it says, “Don't give if we know the dog is predisposed to seizures.” What I understand is that when they did the study for safety during pregnancy, they had a teratogenic effect, which was a puppy had like, a cleft palate or a midline defect. Well, any of you guys who breed dogs, we all know that that happens, but they still have to report it. They still have to put it as part of their product label. Was it associated with the drug? Was it not? We don't know, but I can tell you: I've used a ton of Bravecto with no issue in my practice. I think it's really slick because it lasts three months. And what we are doing is we are breeding her. She's pregnant for two months, and then she's had puppies with her and nursing on her for one month, so it's perfectly the length that you need it to last. And yeah, I've been real happy with this, so I just wanted to mention that. Frontline is another one topically, if topical is a possibility for your dog and kind of their history and for your area. So I think that's the other thing with heartworm prevention and flea and tick prevention: if you live in an endemic tick area, your dog could also lose a pregnancy from tick disease that you get because you're not on tick prevention. So like, you gotta pick your battles a little bit, and I get that less is more. You know, the less things that we're giving them, the better. I'm a believer in that. But, you know, we just need to be aware of things. Antibiotics-wise, the families that we tend to feel are super safe, like no concern, are amoxicillin family and cephalexin family antibiotics. So I wouldn't be reaching for, you know, a miscellaneous something. I don't like to throw, like, metronidazole at them. Baytril is off the table. There's a lot of drugs that we can't use, even if you were thinking, Yeah, I think I can use this. That includes ear medication, that includes eye medication. Be very careful with ear meds and eye meds. Some of those medications have steroids in them. And if you have a pregnant dog and they get an ear infection and you say, I've got the Mometamax at home, you could have a whole litter of cleft palates from using ear meds. So just be very aware. Again, tell all of your family, all of your kennel support, etc. Because sometimes these things we just do, we have extra products and have some extra stuff on hand. Alright, so I think we beat that to death. 

Also be your dog's advocate and remind people like me that she's pregnant. I know it may seem like super obvious, but like, I will never be upset with you if you tell me, “Hey, you know, we bred her three weeks ago,” and even though we haven't been in for pregnancy ultrasound, when she comes in for like, vomiting or something or other to the clinic, I will approach things differently if I think she could be pregnant. If we have a pregnancy ultrasound, and I'm pretty confident she's not pregnant and she's got something going on with her skin, well, I'm going to wait before I use drugs that would not be safe for pregnancy. I'm going to just take the conservative approach until we can re-sonogram her and say, “Yes, she's definitely not pregnant.” You can have Cytopoint or, you know, whatever it was that she needed.

16:15

So at home supplies: We're going to go through some toys that some people have started to kind of acquire and like to use during late pregnancy, mid pregnancy. The Doppler. This is essentially ultrasound waves that are received and translated into sound that you would hear. So Doppler is how we will measure blood pressure in the ER hospitals. Oftentimes, it is kind of a booming sound. It's kind of a staticky, boomy sound whenever you catch something in the right plane, where you can get that Doppler. But basically it's measuring the wave of the heart beating and the way that that's changing the sound going through the air. So what that means is: is it a puppy, or is it her? Because she has vessels. So you can do this effectively. People get very good at it, and I think it does require some skill. If you have a very significantly pregnant, obviously, big belly on this dog that you have, well, it's going to be less likely that you're finding her heart rate versus your puppy’s heart rate saying that your puppy is doing fine. But if you have a singleton, say, a Yorkshire Terrier, her heart rate might be super high, and it might be super easy to take her heart rate through her vessels and hearing her Doppler measure and decide that you have established that her puppy is doing great when really her puppy mummified and died a week ago. I have had that happen. I've had a client—a very, very smart, thorough client—that went out and got these and are really confident. I've had people convince themselves for weeks that they were counting puppy heart rates and a bitch was never pregnant. So it has its limitations. It doesn't give you a picture of what you're looking at. So it's much easier to, like, prove that, yes, that's the right structure that I'm measuring with actual ultrasound. So ultrasound technology has gotten really inexpensive lately compared to what it used to be. So you know, the machines that we use at the clinic, I would say are somewhere between $30,000-40,000; it’s what most of them cost. A really nice one that you see at universities are $100,000 easy. They do range in quality. So there's a clinic that I work at fairly regularly, an ER clinic, that has this butterfly unit. It's not connected. So this one connects. You can project it on a phone. We project them on an iPad. The image quality: I mean, I can diagnose a pyo, but I would not be trying to do fine diagnostics on a fetus that I thought had an abnormality. Some of it has to do with the quality of the probe. Some of it has to do with the shape and the size and if it fits the animal that you're looking at. So most people that have these, you know, they just have one probe. So sometimes that can limit you, but usually the probe size that you guys would want… See how the surface of the probe (which is the white piece, the funny-shaped thing that's on a cord at the top—that is the probe). It shouldn't show you that it's connected to the machine, but kind of the front aspect of that, that's kind of convex/concave, depending on which direction you're looking. That is what's going to make contact. That shape is best. The one that's in the picture on the right: that probe is a linear probe, so it's flat. That would be really helpful for sports medicine. That would be really helpful for certain other diagnoses. I think they might use that one for assessment of the plural space in your chest. So like if you had a dog that had pneumonia, they might use that to better understand what was going on. They're just different uses for different shapes and the image quality will reflect that, but also, there's a difference to the size of the probe and the way that it'll measure and project things for you.

I don't remember exactly how much these butterflies cost, but a lot of people that are really into doing everything they can, and like, I hate to say it, but cost is of less issue—like, this is a super hobby, and they spend a ton of money on showing their dogs, too, or, you know, whatever their lifestyle is, but this is what they do, and they would like to have an ultrasound, because they can have an ultrasound now. I think the Butterfly is a great option for people like that, because it is less expensive. So we have lots of mobile units like this, because the livestock industry has been using these kinds of things forever, like we'd carry around something that had a handle like that, one arm would be in the cow, and one arm would be looking at the screen. And they're real simple, some of them, and you'll see a range in price. So like, again, you'll get what you pay for. You might get one that's super inexpensive, you know, an $1,000 ultrasound. It might work perfectly for what you need, but it might be such poor detail that you really can't use it, or it doesn't have enough features that it really gives you any value. So a couple of mentions on things that do add value: if you have an option and you're looking at an ultrasound, or, you know, looking to go in—some people it's they're going in together. So like a group of friends that breed in the same area, they're like, “Let's go in together and split the cost, and then we can share it amongst ourselves. You know, when we each have bitches that are pregnant.” The Doppler feature, which I know we just talked about Doppler—this is a different Doppler. It's the same technology, again. It's just on an ultrasound screen, when we talk about Doppler, usually we're looking at the directionality of blood flow. So an example would be like an echocardiogram uses Doppler to show direction of blood flow in the heart to diagnose and decide if dogs are normal on their echo for their heart. Same idea, except we can use that to better see a heartbeat. So I think for some units, it could be really helpful, and especially in early pregnancy. I use it all the time for that stage where owners might have a hard time deciding where the heart flicker is, because it's so subtle. And sometimes that Doppler is super helpful. On the veterinary side, we can use Doppler ultrasound to look at blood flow to a placenta. We can try to decide if there's a likelihood that that fetus is not healthy anymore. We use it for all sorts of things. And then M-mode is super slick. If you can get something with M mode, it saves you from having to count the heartbeat yourself. So there are programs embedded in these computers that are associated with these ultrasounds, and you just go into a certain setting or into a certain program. And if you're in M-mode, and you click and it starts your count, and then you stop the time frame, it'll say, “Okay, I counted heart beats over this amount of time.” It'll automatically generate what the heart rate was in the computer. Some of them, double check them. Use your old school method of counting heart rates, just minute hand on a watch kind of thing. I think most people like to count for 15 seconds and then multiply by four, which is what most people do for heart rates. That kind of approach—it’s good to use that to say this isn't double counting my heart rates, because I have had machines that I thought I was measuring how it would want me to and it would tell me the heart rate was 90, and I could hardly see it because it was going so fast, and I knew it was wrong. But just be aware that it can take some trial and error to understand your machine.

23:34

So some people have an interest in progesterone monitoring. I mean, say that you have a line, or the bitch that you have come from a bunch of dogs that lose pregnancies late in pregnancy because their progesterone declines. That can happen. They can also do that just as a result of having something abnormal going on, like if they have a really unhealthy pregnancy, their uterus can just have negative stimulation that causes them to lose the amount of progesterone that they have, being produced for their ovaries. I just wanted to say out loud: there are people at home that have their own machines that, again, you know, have bought either a second hand machine or decided you know what, I really want to know this, or I want to be able to run my own tests, because I have to drive two hours to my vet. I know how to draw blood from a dog. I can teach myself to do this. That’s play at your own risk. Trust me when I say almost all of the tests that you could remotely buy are very limited in their accuracy, but the accuracy is usually highest in the lower ranges, which is the range we care about for pregnancy. So if you have a machine that maybe you're running some serial tests, and you want to do that, and then if you get a low number, if you get that she's less than five manners per ml, or less than 10, or, you know, five to 10, well then maybe you get her an appointment and pick her up and get a sample drawn off to send off. So I mean, I think you could use that as like a first line test to indicate to yourself for a second line test. But the reality is these are going to be limited for use. It's not going to be a perfect system, but just know that those are available. You can buy them. But yeah, there's a lot out there. I think we've talked quite a bit about that. If you guys watched my progesterone lecture on the variety of machines, the cost variety, the quality… Even the good machines—well, we say good—even the machines that we've relied on companies for years and the $40,000 machine, then they come out with a new progesterone test. I mean, I think 90% of them are trash. They're not as accurate as what we need. And certainly, if this is inaccurate, what happens? Does she lose her pregnancy? I think that's the thing you have to weigh when you're implementing something to use. But some of the time, it's where you are and how distant you are, how feasible it is to get your dog in. Maybe you have a dog that has severe anxiety and they can't hardly get them in a clinic. We work for some bite work type dogs that, I mean, it was stressful for them driving three hours both directions, and they have come in with the dog on a really heavy leather muzzle, and like the dog is stressed. That's not great. I mean, it's not great for us to have to creatively manage a dog like that for like, a C-section, if we needed to also. But I think they're all going to be individuals, and we need to manage them that way. 

Oh, this might be something that some of you guys are familiar with. This is called tocodynamometry. A tocodynamometer measures uterine contractility. This is a common technology that we use for women for managing pregnancy. Basically, there's a belt that you put around your waist and have to have a little bit of tension, and then it's got a little transducer that connects to some cords and they measure your uterine contractions over time. Usually somewhere around 20 minutes or 30 minutes is how long they'll measure these, but it kind of looks like the waveform that you see on a heart rate monitor. So like, if you're looking at an EKG, this is what it's called. You guys probably know what it is. But if you're at the hospital, and the thing that you're hearing the heart rate, and you're seeing the green line bounce up and then go down, and then come across and bounce up and go down—it kind of looks like that. So you can see the trace on the left. You can see the kind of printer that's printing, the machine that's printing out all of the information for somebody to interpret to say, “Should you be having contractions like this, where you are in your pregnancy?” If you are having contractions like that, we can stop that from happening, and then your pregnancy is happier, so the baby is not as stressed.

It'll also measure heart rate. A lot of these have a Doppler feature to them, so they can be used for that as well, if that is part of the machine setup that you have. Technology is changing dramatically. So I have some old ones, except they're like old analog ones. It looked like an old machine, right? Looking at it, they have all sorts of cool tablet/phone app setups for women. I mean, it's completely changed how they're doing that because I was looking into teaching how to use these machines at a guide dog facility, and they are very familiar with Whelp Wise, which we'll talk about in a minute. That's the company that they had worked with for a while. And they were just trying to see if they could do it all in house and not have to have somebody consulting for them, and I was going to try to fly my old machines out to them and work with them on the ones that I have, which would be kind of inexpensive to ship there. This is not small. So for perspective, this is like a couple of toasters, maybe, like three toasters worth in size. It's like a printer. I mean, it's big, it's a big machine, but we were looking at flying out, and I talked to somebody that's a neonatologist and works in human health care, and she said, “You know what? It's not even worth it. Even if they wanted your machines and they were going to absorb your machine, the technology has changed. Like, we don't use those machines at all anymore, but there's newer stuff.” I mean, it's becoming less expensive, which is great. You can get some of these. If you know somebody that works in the human field, and they are updating their inventory and they're getting rid of machines, it’s a great place to find incubators, these kind of machines, old ultrasounds, Dopplers, the same things that we use in human med are the same things we use in canine med. This is a picture from the Whelp Wise website, but this is the adapted version that we use for dogs, which you can use basically the exact same thing as the human version. I think they've adjusted the belt a little bit; the little strap case that goes around the middle. I think they've tweaked it a little bit, or found the right product to adjust for the right scenario in size, and certainly breeds are going to vary, so they're going to be a very different system for a Chihuahua than they are for a Great Dane on size. So I think those types of modifications, they've been able to do. Whelp Wise is a company that is based in Colorado, but it's basically a 24 hour hotline/helpline for managing girls that are having contraction issues, or for the whelping process. So basically, what they do is, you sign up for their program, you pay whatever the fee is, which is a good chunk. I don't know what it is currently, but I would just say this isn't like an inexpensive thing to be able to get but you are renting, right? So it's not like you're having to buy one. So they mail it to you, and they give you support to help kind of practice and set it up if you haven't done it before. And then they have you monitor serially based on what her reads look like. So if her uterine contractions are where they should be, and not infrequent and not strong, and she is in a place where she should not be having contractions, well, they're going to be like, “Okay, great. We'll have you recheck in a few days,” or “We'll have you recheck in a week,” and they'll base that out potentially, if they're not worried about her. If she's acting fine, and you're just kind of doing it as a progress check. If she is seven weeks pregnant and she's acting like she keeps going into labor, that could help red flag, so that you know something's going on. She's contracting, she's trying to lose her pregnancy. There's medications and ways that we can stop them from doing so. So this is super easy to use once you get used to it. So as far as being able to get the readings, it's frustrating at first, because it is one of those things. It's a learning curve: where to place it, how to get it to read, and you have to sit there for a long time, but it can be a lifesaver for carriage and for whelping. So there are bitches that, without this technology, we cannot get them to term. There are also dogs that I haven't personally diagnosed something wild, but I've got a friend and a mentor that she said she's diagnosed a uterine torsion and a uterine rupture. And basically what they saw was, while in labor, everything was going fine, puppies were being whelped, and then something weird was going on with the trace, and they couldn't figure out what it was. But basically, because the trace was weird, even though the bitch was calm and everything seemed like it was going fine, they saved the litter or the uterus or the bitch in that scenario. So pretty neat stuff. What you choose to do with your pregnancy varies, but it's great if you're in the hospital. As a person, you're admitted when you start labor, and they're all there to help you. Well, we don't do that for dogs, right? So I know some people do at home labor and have different systems, but for a large majority of people, I mean, there's support immediately for you and for the baby if something goes wrong, and we don't have the infrastructure to do that in veterinary hospitals. It's just not a practical thing for 99% of hospitals. But downside with this, the expense; I think it's charged weekly. I don't know what the current rate is, but you guys could inquire. It does require a landline. So one of the reasons that the guide dog facility that I was talking with had looked at trying to do this on their own: they had the people to do it, and they've got staff that are able to manage their kind of breeding kennels that could be up and managing these if they learn how to read them. But the biggest problem was they live in an area that had a massive increase in the cost of a landline, and you have to have a landline phone in order to connect this properly, so that it can transmit the leads properly for them to interpret out in Colorado. And maybe that technology might change. I mean, maybe it'll get to a place where that's not the case, but at least in the immediate past, it still requires a landline. How many of us have a landline? I don't, so we’ve got to get creative. I know there was a client in another practice in the Portland area that said that he would go across the street to her church. That was how she managed transmitting the read. The other thing I just want to mention: this has tremendous value, this technology, but it is not perfect, and I think it is just like many things in society today. It is one person's opinion over another. I would say that I've experienced this too. Some of the feedback would be that the veterinarians feel like Whelp Wise does not listen to them at all, advises things that they would not recommend, like when to give drugs. As a practitioner, I would have told you not to do that, then it puts us in a who's right and who's wrong scenario, which is really unfortunate. So there's a lot of people who are big proponents of this, and they are the OG, have been around for 30 years before this was around in earnest, and people that were heavily in reproduction, that wrote all the books. Those guys, they tiptoe around them and treat them like royalty, and they speak to them like doctors. And then you have somebody that's fairly young that comes in, boarded or not, and they will step on your toes a little bit. Each time we have an interaction, they'll have opinions about how to manage things, because they're human nurses. So that trumps sometimes in their mind. I'm saying like this is just the experience that people have had. Sometimes they've had some issue with communications between those two people. Obviously, that's not super important here. I just want you guys to know that kind of dynamic happens. Also, in addition to conflict, I would say sometimes Whelp Wise will say, “Oh, she needs a C-section immediately.” And we can use this for dogs without due dates. Sometimes. Better understand is she in labor? And that's why some people will do it. We've had a new pregnancy. We don't actually know who's due. We'd like to monitor her in a more significant way, because we're worried about not knowing that she's going into labor or something like that. I know of at least one case where the veterinarian didn't have a lot of confidence with reproduction, but could do a C-section. The owner had thought this technology presented for an emergency C-section with the vet who did an ultrasound and puppies looked fine, but the Whelp Wise said, “We’ve got to go! Gotta go. Gotta go.” And they went to surgery, and she was a week pre-due, and they delivered the first puppy, and it has no hair, and they try to close her back up, and she loses the litter. It's just like anything. It's not perfect by itself. You gotta have some direction. You gotta have some experience when you're using it. As veterinarian, advising on it, or as an owner, kind of understanding how to interpret all this. But I realize you guys are just like the middle man here, like you're just managing us sometimes. But yeah, I just wanted to mention.

36:35

Other things you might have on hand that you might be getting at some of these appointments when you're going for ultrasound or X-rays, following up with your vet: Some veterinarians will sell oral calcium sources. I would say most owners buy their own as far as the oral ones go. The subcutaneous injections: I would say that is a practice by practice variance. Whelp Wise is very supportive of doing that. They incorporate that lot into their programs that they are suggesting, like when to give. I usually give sub-q calcium, or subcutaneous calcium, during the whelp after the first puppy is born, and then every four hours until she's done with her whelp. Most dogs, I equate it to calcium being putting gas in your car, and oxytocin being pushing the pedal. If you don't have calcium, you can't get oxytocin to work if she’s low calcium to start with. So it's always better to have a full tank. And when these guys are in labor, it is very difficult to give too much calcium. When it's in an oral form, it's impossible to give too much calcium. Basically, if you feel like she's acting like she doesn't have enough calcium, she's probably low on calcium. But the sub q injections have worked really well for me. Oxytocin with guidance: so we certainly want to know what's going on with her. I have had clients that I feel very confident they killed their dogs by giving them oxytocin without supervision and not understanding what the dog was doing. And, you know, the necropsy: I had one client that told me that her uterus exploded. Her uterus exploded! And I was like, “No, it didn't. She was obstructed. She was trying to pass the puppy. It was stuck, or it was sideways, or, you know, something was going on, and you pushed oxytocin and thought that you just keep doing it and doing it and doing it, and that didn't take her in for a C-section, because usually your dogs free whelp.” And that's the reality. You know, you can overdo it. Oh, I should say oxytocin dosing has changed. The drug formularies that we have—we use way less than we used to. Like we use a tenth of what we used to use, volume-wise. So don't be afraid if your vet sends you with these teeny, tiny syringes, and you haven't whelped a litter in a long time, and you're like, “I used to give like a mil!” We're not getting a mil anymore. We're giving, like, 0.1. 

38:54

Other things that we're going to be doing: we're going to set up the den, right? So lots of options for whelping boxes. Things to consider: How expensive are they? Obviously you care about what it costs. Storage: so can you break it down and fold it up and hide it, or does it stay in its final form all the time? Is it the right size? So rising, usually we want her to be able to fully lay down like laid out with puppies in two places, essentially, is the best way to think about it. Most of the time they're square. So if she can lay down and fill half of it with her body, that is probably the right size. So smaller than that, obviously, would be that you can't get in, and she's going to step in, squish her puppies. She might anyway, but that will help reduce that likelihood. I think too big of a box, it's harder for them to find her. So like, if she's in there, it's going to be harder for them to get around and get to her if they're all the way on the other side of a big box, and you have a toy breed dog. Pig rails: they're rails that are designed to allow puppies to go into the corners and on the sides. And if she leans against it, she's not smothering them against the wall. The reason they're called pig rails is because that's also what we used to use for pigs. They've changed a little bit depending on the facility. There's a lot of facilities that have totally different style setups now. But the same idea is true for dogs. Breeds are very individual, but any breed really can squish the puppy if they're not kind of protected on the sides. That pig rail design, I would say it's not an absolute necessity for every breed. There are people who don't use them, but I would say for most breeds, we like to use them. And other things would be durability. So is this something I can reuse? Is it something that I'm going to have for 50 years, and it's going to be great? And the king of all of those is: Can I clean this properly? There's a lot of people who make whelping boxes. You cannot sterilize these. If this bitch carried Coccidia, wasn't clinical, she is going to give the gift of Coccidia to every litter of puppies that has been in this box, because you cannot get it out of this wood, even if it's like finished and you really like worked on it, I think it's still going to be really hard. Anything porous is going to have a problem. There are people who home-make other types of surfaces and things. I think, you know, metal is a cold conductor. I think puppies get chilled on anything that's kind of a metal type. I think most people use fiberglass or plastic. Some people use baby pools. Again, it's it doesn't allow for the crush concern with the pig rail, because there's no way to put a pig rail on a baby pool setup. But I can tell you, even for some big dogs, this baby pool setup, actually, with newspaper is what guide dogs in California use. They've got people there around the clock, but they don't have issues with puppy loss, because the bitches they have are not big, heavy, obese. I hate to say that, but they're not a big, overdone, heavier style dog. They're lighter. They're more like this. And so I think they don't tend to experience that, and they don't select for bad mom. If they're not great moms, or if they were, like, super nervous and were constantly like, oh my gosh, maybe I'm going to squish this puppy, kind of nervous energy, they're not going to be bred again, and they're not going to keep any of the offspring from that mom to go forward. That is how they will select in their program. 

So the picture on the right is kind of like a laminate kind of thing that looks like somebody kind of put together. It looks pretty good. I mean, it looks like the surface is pretty cleanable. I mean, there's the porous edges, so it's not perfect, but, like, probably the more important surfaces you really can get in there and clean. The pig rail layer: this is just PVC piping, and that's what a lot of people will use if they're making their own boxes, and they don't have something that's special made that's a pig rail, that's part of it—that's often what they'll use. And then, of course, there's all sorts of stuff on the internet that you can buy. So I think this is from Jorvet on the bottom left. I think it's made of wood but it’s all sealed and painted and easy to clean. The pig rail is already a part of the box. I don't think that can be disassembled. So, like, downside, not great. This one on the right: I'm not sure what that material is. I think it's plastic. But instead of having a physical shelf as a pig rail, they're using bars. So I don't know if you can appreciate that, but kind of the same idea as like, the PVC is just keeping her from leaning against the wall and provides a little bit of space for them to tuck themselves into. 

This is almost like foam board. It’s the best way to explain it. With almost a duct tape type material on the outside. They are sturdy. These can be totally collapsible, like you can take them all apart and, like, put them in a closet. I'm not sure on the pig rail component, but I know I have been around a box kind of similar to that, and it's super easy. You can take out that little cut out in the front, kind of, can take it and move it and use it when you need to, or when they're really young, you know, keep it open. And then once puppies get old enough, then we'll put the kind of front on it. And then this one to the right: I'm not against it, but this is a con. I think this is Easy Whelp. What I don't like: fancy, gritty. I don't know how to explain it. It's like a pretty pattern-y white panel that has like grooves in it. That is just going to be harder to clean. Look at all the inside; it has all those  gaps and things. You probably have to go in there and really work to get it cleaned. So it is the right material. I think these can be disassembled too. Just doesn't apply. Bedding is pretty straightforward. So easy to wash, easy to sterilize. There are people who use puppy pads versus washable linen. I like the linens. The other thing I really like is if you get, like, the cheapest of cheap, short fiber carpet pieces from a hardware store, like the ugliest carpet you've ever seen. Just buy the one that nobody wants to buy. I think that is super helpful if you have some puppies and you feel like their traction is struggling on linen. I usually do linens but if I have  some puppies that were having trouble getting up on our legs, swimmers, that sort of thing—carpet squares are your best friend. They're not washable, so you have to go through them and just toss them once they get a little bit. But I think they've got grip to them, on the bottom, and they don't fly, and you can fit them to the actual space. Just, you know, obviously, it gets a little bit messy when puppies are a little bit older. 

Heat sources, pick your poison. They all have pros and cons, right? Some people like to keep the room hot. I think the bitch hates it, so I don't like to be hot, but we don't do that in my house. We do focal heat sources, though. I do heat lamps. Risk with heat lamps is you can burn your house down, so don't want to leave it unattended. You want to make sure that it's a nice one and that you don't have electrical fire concerns with that. Heating pads that you plug in work great. I usually use those in like temporary spaces versus whelping boxes, but you can, and they also make these heat plates. The top right photo is actually like a plate. I'm not a big fan of these. The reason is they're real slippery, right? So you gotta put them underneath things. But I feel like they get shifted around, and they can get thermal burns. So if the puppy is wet at all, like, mom goes and cleans the crap out of somebody, and it's just, you know, all over her for a minute, and then she goes and crawls over on the heat source, the likelihood of a burn is high versus these other sources are not going to do that. Getting those contact steam burns. Bottom right is a heating disc. I think it's called a Snuggle Safe. At a previous practice I used to stock these, and we used to sell them because we use them all the time. They're great for temporary use. I think it has less function as a permanent thing in a box. But I think, you know, if you were struggling with heat and you wanted to provide some more sources, they retain heat for a while, like some of them will hold for six or eight hours being warm once you put them in the microwave. 

This is kind of a given, but adjust her to the area, right? So nest, make your spot, figure out where you're doing all this, and make sure that you spend some time in here. Most people that I know like to introduce them and let them spend some time in there, like almost like crating them in there for their intermittent, later in the day, for the week leading up, just so they associate that with their safe spot and they're comfortable. And, you know, their beds are in there, and then when puppies come, they're more adjusted.

47:26

Okay, so, whelping supplies! Tackle boxes are your best friend. I adopted this idea from Oklahoma, State. They had one, a box, just like this, and it had, like a crate, and it folded out, just like a tackle box, and it's organized, and you know where everything is, and you can kind of check off if you're missing something, or if there's something that needs more compliance. It's easy for you to kind of look around. We usually kept, like, the more major common things in the top two shelves in the bottom, which is kind of like, extra stuff, or like, in case of need, kind of stuff. I love microfiber towels for puppy rubbing. These are the towels that they use, like in auto shops doing detailing. I hate the texture of them, to be honest. I've got one of those texture aversions to these, but they do get the moisture out faster. So if you have a puppy that's just born, either C-section or naturally, they're really good at drying them off. I usually use regular towels after the microfiber towel for the regular side of things, because I don't like the textured towel, but they are good for drying. Thinking about a towel warming station, depending on how your house is laid out. If you happen to be right by your laundry room, throw all the towels you want to use for your whelp in the dryer, and just keep the dryer going the whole time you're whelping. Just keep it running. It'll be perfectly warm and the perfect temperature for those puppies. More people will use a storage bin with some heat sources. So just like we talked about puppy heat sources, same kind of idea; you can use a towel warmer if you have one that's in your bathroom or, you know, think about the things that you have. If you keep your towels warm and they're already warm and ready for you, it's easier to kind of work through resuscitating a puppy.

49:13

Don't forget to have a bin for used towels. The worst thing is grabbing a partially wet towel that you use on a different puppy—for me, anyway. Make sure you have a trash can. There's going to be lots of things you need to dispose of in the process of doing whelping. And a clock with a second hand. I just threw that on here because I couldn't figure out where else to put it. But I feel like a lot of these things are like practical things. So you're going to want to clock because you're going to want to be able to write down when they're born. You're going to be able to want to count heart rates if you need to. Other things to put in your check box: airway clearing options. So the nasal bolt syringes that are at Walmart or major stores, most of them are the structure on the bottom left. And I think those are really sturdy, and I don't love them for puppies. They work, so if that's what you have, great. These ones that are kind of in the middle: they call them ear bulb syringes. And I don't know if you can buy them very effectively, in a form, without buying something where they're being used for an ear product. So, like, there's a product that, like, gets rid of ear wax, that I realized they come in this box because I had an issue one time, and I realized that's the bulb that I've been looking for. Because I can't ever find the right shape that’s really perfect for a puppy mouth. But I like the ear bulbs better. They're a little bit softer, and I just feel like they work a little bit better. The daily mucus trap is the top right. So that is a really cool little device. Basically, the area that's got little hash marks—that tube is going to go down in the puppy's mouth, and you just fish it down and it'll go into the lungs. Because of the size of it, it'll go down the trachea, and then the green piece is what you put in your mouth when you, you know, inhale, suck on that end, you will pull mucus through the other tube into the central chamber. Word to the wise: make sure that you have plenty of these. If you like them. You can clean them and reuse them. So, like some clinics, will do that, and they'll have one for each staff member. Do not put this on its side, kind of like this. Make sure it's tipped up, and make sure that you don't get that completely full, because if you do, then you will have a mouthful of, you know what! Not going to be fun. But they're really cool. It's a good technology, and it's a good way to get fluid out of puppies.

51:36

Umbilical cord management. So there's a couple things that you'll want to have. One is going to be related to just treating the umbilical itself. A tincture of iodine is what we always used to use. I would say it seems to have come back on the market, and I'm not sure how. So if you want a fun fact for bar trivia: the reason that a tincture of iodine is hard to get is because it used to make meth. So they got rid of it everywhere, because we used to have it everywhere, but it has that tincture of iodine versus, just like iodine, tincture iodine dries that tissue out, and that's the thing that's really helpful. A chlorhexidine or iodine, or, you know, other things could be used—beta nine—but mom's just gonna lick it off. And I don't know that we've really documented benefit. I think the tincture of iodine—the drying impact of that umbilicus is really what we want. As far as tying off materials, totally up to you. Dental floss is what a lot of people have used for a long time. I like expired suture because I work in a veterinary hospital, so that's what I use, because we have suture that we can't use anymore, and that's what I will take home and use. You might ask. I mean, honestly, if you've got a good relationship with your vet and you're in there, tell them to check the boxes that they've got. If they've got anything expired, if you have a litter or two in the near future. You can use actual umbilical tape. They do make it in a smaller width, strength; it's really bulky, though. I don't think it's practical for puppies. Like, it's really made for people, because people are, you know, bigger, right? Some people like to have hemostats to manage their puppies. We certainly do at the clinic. Obviously, if we’re doing a C-section, but you don't necessarily have to use them. They do make little clips. They're kind of like the human clips. They do make them in tiny sizes for puppies. So you could use those temporarily, if you're just trying to manage, like, say, you had a couple puppies right in a row that whelped, you could. Or in a C-section scenario, just to try to expedite being able to rub and not having a clamp in your way. And then, of course, don't forget scissors in your box. We need scissors to cut off the excess umbilicus, to cut your thread, or your dental floss, etc.

53:44

So as far as whelping supplies related to identification, again, this is kind of a pick your poison. Some people like different styles of collars. There's lots of things you can buy. Nail polish. There's pet friendly nail polish that some people will use. The trick is you have to let it dry before you can let her lick that puppy, and the puppy has to be totally dry to do it. So it's popular in some breeds. I don't. I'm a collar person. I like the velcro collars, personally. They get kind of gross, the lighter colors. Pattern maps are for breeds, like, if you had a German Shorthaired. Those puppies will come out and have very distinct patterns. Well, you could say, “Alright, puppy number three is male,” and then draw his pattern on the map. I'd say that's less common now, but people do it. Shape sites, meaning you take like a peanut clipper, and if you're trying to mark them quickly, or if you're trying not to use collars because you had, you know, a bad experience, or mom ate them and got obstructed, something like that—you could do something like, shapes. You would say, “Okay, we have six puppies. We've got four girls and two boys, and they're all the same color.” Well, you could shave the hair away on the left shoulder on one; the right shoulder on another; the left hip on one; and the right hip on another. And it's a way to mark around so that you really know which one you are. But also, on that note, can you tell them apart? Sometimes you can. I would say we have an astounding number of breeders that claim to be able to tell them apart, and I am 90% sure they have swapped in their mind which puppy was which midway because of things that we've monitored, but it doesn't matter, as long as they're doing well, it doesn't matter. We just want to make sure that we can mark them so that we know if we have one that's stressed, that we're doing it right.

55:32

And then just to mention, there are these scoring charts. Some people like to use these. This is a human system that was developed to say, like which neonates are higher risk that need closer monitoring. So I think, keeping in mind, the more vigorous they are when they're born, the higher they're going to score on this, essentially. It is a good practice. It's practical for natural whelps. I think we usually know, you know, if most whelps go okay. We don't have a bunch of really sketchy puppies that aren't doing well. It might be hard to implement for a C-section, but I would say more relevant, potentially for like, an emergency C-section scenario. This is the proposed puppy/kitten version. The human chart is really looking at human scale, so like human heart rates, respiratory rates, and different features. Well, puppies are going to be different. So that chart is available to the public. There's a study that kind of documented it.

56:27

Other things in my toolbox that I just thought to mention: it's great to have a stethoscope. You can get them online. You don't have to be a vet to have one. And you can practice listening to your own dog. I mean, you don't have to listen to puppies first. It's great just to say, “Yes, this puppy has a heartbeat.” You can do it with your finger. You know you can tell if you pinch kind of over their chest and feel, usually, you can feel a heart rate as well that way. But stethoscopes are great. Have a thermometer handy. You're not going to need it during the whelp, necessarily (maybe for mom), but good to have in your box. Needles for things like acupuncture points. So I know the nose point is the most common one. There's some other points as well that people will implement. Having gauze, just clean, tissue, gauze, paper towels. Those are obviously good things to have. A good example of it though, I put that picture and it's kind of graphic (the one on the bottom)—that puppy was born in the hospital. So I was able to fix that puppy and it lived. So there are puppies that are born like that at home. If mom hasn't chewed the intestines in half, even if she has, I would say the right thing to do is to try to put some sterile something over it, and try to, like, make a little wrap bandage over that area. If we can get to them quickly, some of these, we can save them. So you can use some sterile saline to keep it moist. That gauze. But just trying to wrap them up and protect it from trauma in transport is really helpful. And then tape, obviously, like I said, for emergencies. 

Drugs-wise, I know we had talked about that. Other than the oxytocin and calcium, we don't tend to have a lot of drugs of need related to the whelping process, but yeah, just consult with your vet. If there's something going on. If you have a puppy that's struggling, it definitely needs to be seen to give it needs direction, antibiotics, you know, all sorts of things.

A pen light or some kind of little light force, easy to look in mouths to check for cleft palates. Also sometimes it just helps if you have a light on. Like for a placenta or something, if you're trying to look at something—good to have some light around. And then don't forget to have some cotton and some access to warm water, just to stimulate them to urinate and defecate. Lot of people like incubators nowadays, but you can simulate this with having a container like, I'll just have a Tupperware container with a heating pad in it—that’s what I use. But these are fancy. Some of them are climate control. They can provide heat sources. We can put drugs, like, we can put things that they can inhale, inhalant type medications, in these types of units, they can provide oxygen. There's all sorts of things. 

Oxygen. Just to mention, ideally, we like to give oxygen with a mask, right? So there's like, these little, teeny, tiny masks that can be adjusted to some of these oxygen spider tanks that people will have. Some people have them, like if you have a cart yourself, because you have some oxygen need, or somebody in your home—maybe your spouse or a parent or something along those lines. But just keep in mind, it becomes explosive. So don't just go get oxygen and then forget that you have oxygen, because it will explode if it catches fire. Sometimes they become projectiles, like if the canister falls on the ground and the gas releases suddenly, because they're pressurized, they can shoot across the room. It's a serious danger. We chain them to the wall. That's why they're chained into the car too. So just be very careful if you do kind of decide that you want to get oxygen, maybe you have a brachycephalic breed that's had some struggling puppies in the past, and you just really want to have it. Just for perspective, I won't have it at my house. I will have it at the clinic, but I will not have it at my house, myself or my whelps. So I've never had oxygen in my house. But I mean, hypoxia is a thing. Traumatic births happen, where they are stuck in a canal for a long time, and that would be the most helpful thing. So it isn't wrong to want to have some.

So on support supplies for the neonates themselves. So colostrum is something I think to keep in the back of your mind. Could you need colostrum? Scenarios where you might need colostrum? What if? I mean, it's a grim scenario, but a dog that dies during a C-section, or the litter is delivered, and weird stuff happens. I've got a friend who thinks had a cardiodeath and a Doberman walking in the door during a whelp. So she was coming in for an emergency C-section, and the dog died in the office, walking in the door. They rushed her back and delivered the puppies. Well, in those scenarios, what do you do if you don't have colostrum? Also things like, if she's not making any. Some dogs never come into milk, especially if they've been supplemented progesterone during their pregnancy, because they couldn't carry very easily. Sometimes they have terrible, crummy looking colostrum, and they hardly have any milk when their puppies are born, especially if it's a large litter. I mean, what are you going to do? There are owners who are smart and bank colostrum from previous litters. So say you had bred two bitches, and maybe last month you had a singleton pregnancy, and she is the biggest milk cow in your house, like she comes into like gangbusters milk, and she just had a singleton so she didn't need all that colostrum. So you can go through and I mean, I know it sounds silly, but you can milk your dog. You can basically strip the colostrum out of her glands for like the first 24 hours or so. We think they produce colostrum for maybe two to three days, but I think the first 24 hours, I would feel really safe that that's like the good concentrated stuff. Usually, you can kind of tell by the appearance, right? But it's going to be more thick and orangish yellow versus white and thinner.

1:02:08

If you have banked colostrum, you can put it in the freezer. You can put it in the little tube, so, like, that's like these little conical tubes that I have there. You can put it in a bag. It doesn't have to be something fancy, like get a Ziploc bag and portion it out after the fact. I think it's easier if you already kind of portion it. Those conical tubes, you can buy them online, and that way you know how many mils you're thawing. If you go and reach for it, then you can calculate it and not be wasteful and heat and thaw and heat and thaw, because that's probably not helpful for, like, the quality of the colostrum long-term, if you do it that way. But I'd say, like six months to a year—I wouldn't hesitate. If you got, like, a regular freezer that has the free thaw cycle, it's not going to last as long. If you've got a deep freezer, like you're a scientist and you have a minus 80 at work, use it. We can get colostrum tubed or bottle fed, if it's something like that. We can also tube plasma or serum. So say, we have a large litter anticipated, and she doesn't look like she's coming into a lot of milk, we might bank serum from her or from a housemate, meaning, draw a bunch of blood and spin it down and then pull off the serum. And that serum is going to have the same components, for the most part, the same immunologic components as the colostrum would. The colostrum is also going to have fat, sugar content, and all the good stuff that milk has that's a little more concentrated, but the immunologic component to this is really why colostrum is important. Fortunately, dogs are not quite as dependent, so it's not like you're gonna have a train wreck if you can't figure this out, and you don't have access to things. Fresh frozen plasma can be sourced from bank-type locations. Though, Hemopet used to produce it. I had a client that sources it from Canada. Like, honestly, I mean, use the internet to find it. Sometimes you need a veterinary prescription, like I've had clients that had me sign off to say I approve of it. A lot of hospitals will keep a bag. They'll keep a bag for critical patients in general, but we can use it for a large litter that we're trying to provide some extra support for that we don't think that she came in the milk properly, or she was in an emergency, and we had to deliver early, you know, something like that could happen. You can also use plasma or serum under the skin, like subcutaneous injection. It's quite a lot, so I usually do it over two injections. Like I’ll have the owner get it when they get home, and then six or eight hours later, like, space it out a little bit, because I think the volume of the injections that most of these puppies—I can't remember what the equation is exactly, I have to look it up per ounce—but it's like 10 mils for a puppy, a typical sized puppy, it's a lot of fluid volume.

1:04:54

Just as a mention, I know some people get really excited about “I have powdered colostrum. I'll just use my powder colostrum!” But just remember: colostrum contains the antibodies that relate to viruses. Primarily we're looking at viral things that we're trying to protect against. There's other components, that's not it, but viruses that cows get are not the same, and powder colostrum is cow colostrum. It has other benefits. There's lots of GI proponents, including colostrum and GI health for dogs. I think other species as well, but it's not the same. So unfortunately, we don't have powdered. In some species, they have powdered colostrum. You can buy it at a feed store and you can use it because there's plenty of people that have the demand for the product. And the reality is we just don't have enough demand for the canine product to exist. So you'll need to scale. You can use a food bowl. I've got a big flat bowl, and I'll put a towel in it, and that will usually contain them. I think the bowl tends to have to get bigger over time, right? Because they'll start to try to climb out when you're trying to weigh them, and just make sure you compare, obviously, so that you can more easily see what they weigh. Birth weight, basically basic rules of them. This is probably old hat for a lot of you guys. They can lose in the first day. It's not the end of the world if they do. We love it if they maintain or they gain the first day, but if they lose a little bit, sometimes they're just trying to figure things out. It's obviously pretty stressful. Some of them had a little extra water weight with the way that they were in utero. So sometimes you can see some fluctuations, especially like Frenchies and Bulldogs that had carried all that extra fluid, not necessarily water puppies, but some of them will come out a little weepy. So I think some of that's the loss that we might see. They should gain between five and 10% of their body weight a day, if they're gaining well after that point, and roughly double from birth to one week and from one week to two weeks.

As far as supplement options, more things to keep in your cabinet. We're out of the check box now, obviously. We only want to give this after the window is over. So the colostrum window, you can supplement milk immediately, but if you supplement milk replacer immediately, you are asking their GI tract to close down shop, to not accept the colostral antibody transfer. I don't know that we understand why it does that, but that is pretty well accepted: that we basically closed that process. But you would have to go with injectable routes to get either plasma or serum injected in order to supplement their immune system. But after that colostral window is over, so like 12 to 24, hours after birth, you can totally be turned loose on supplementation. There's lots of different supplements out there that are commercially available. I like the canned S-black the best. There is a powdered one. Some of the powdered supplements just don't suspend very well, if that makes sense. They're tough to make into their final form. And the problem with the cans: I think the reason people like powder is because that can would take, even if you had a big litter, it's going to take a while before you get through the can. And they have a lot of waste, because once they open it, it's only good for a day or two in the fridge. But you can actually freeze these. I put them in like an ice cube tray and freeze them so that you can use smaller amounts when you thaw individually, and then you can keep it a lot longer. Again, you know, six months. No problem in the freezer. Like, if I have a struggling puppy, and I'm just trying to supplement a little bit, hold to a little bit of dilution from the actual concentration that is made here. They can have what's called osmotic diarrhea, which basically means they have a lot of fluid that goes out into their intestines, because there's a lot of particles that basically just draws water out into the intestine because of the way that the milk is structured. And it's just different. So if you do it that way, it just makes it less likely to happen. Doesn't mean it can't happen. Whether it's changing from formula to formula, or changing from her to formula, or from formula to her, you can see diarrhea. Just like diet change in an adult.

Probiotics. I like to use probiotics and replace— is what I'll often do if I'm supplementing a whole litter. I'll put a packet of a probiotic in with the milk replacer. There's no harm in it. It's just increasing the likelihood that we're colonizing the good bacteria, right? And then, just to mention, high fat, homemade concoctions are generally not helpful. I'm not saying I will never reach for it if I have a puppy that is struggling with every other attempt. But there is some wild stuff. There's all sorts of stuff on the internet, right? Like you can find anything you want to find, and puppies don't thrive on things made with mayonnaise and raw eggs and all sorts of crazy things. Can they sustain an animal? Well, sure, they have nutrients, but the balance that we want is like this. So these are the different makeups of different types of milk. Just so you guys know. I mostly give you this chart to say we're looking at the milk balance. We're looking at protein. Carbohydrates, fat, energy—super important that we match things as close to mom as possible, because obviously, if she's nursing on mom, I mean, there's nothing better than a big fat puppy that nursed on mom, and we want to simulate that. Well, if we need 33% protein and 17% carbs and 42% fat, if we compare that to some of the others around it… The goat is less protein, less fat, dense, it's much more watered down, basically. The reason people like goat milk is because it does not cause diarrhea, because it's kind of the same osmotic discussion. The particles are so tiny that they don't have that kind of reaction things like they do with cow milk. So that's basically why people have grasped on goat milk. Goat milk is for goats. It is available, and people didn't want to sell it to you. So you will hear lots of people trying to argue that, and I know there's probably plenty of people in here that are like throwing a pound at the wall right now, really mad that I'm saying this, but it's not structured properly for dogs. It's just not offensive and causes diarrhea. So it's not that you could never use it if it's the only thing you have—well, maybe it's the right thing to use. But if you are trying to prepare ahead of time, I would not go out and buy a goat milk structured replacer, or goat milk from having an arrangement from a local producer, or something like that. Pasteurized only also on goat milk— for people and for animals. Raw goat's milk can often contain something called Q fever, which is a disease. For perspective, in California, when I worked at UC–Davis, they made us fit N95 masks to wear in the barn, just to be around pregnant goats and goats that were producing milk. You had to wear them because it was such a risk from particles being aerosolized and infecting people and causing flu-like symptoms for two to three weeks and hospitalization. That's what happens with Q fever oftentimes. That happens from a small ruminant livestock. So primarily goats in that region is what we would see. But if we are obtaining goat milk from a producer that is not pasteurizing, well, guess what? Those particles that would make you sick in the hospital setting are the same particles that could be in your milk. And they can make your puppy sick and die! Is it super common? No, but it is out there. It's just like anything, you know. We want to set this up so that it's super smooth and easy, right? 

All right. So as far as prepping the formula, I just wanted to mention: it should be slightly warmer than your hand. I usually use a coffee mug in a microwave. I think five to 10 seconds is usually plenty for the amount of formula you're using. It's basically just going to be the very bottom of the cup, like a very little bit on the bottom of the cup. The volume should be as long as you're not having any regurgitation events, one mil of formula for one ounce of puppy weight every two hours. So that is whether it be bottle fed or tube fed. If they're taking more with a bottle, let them. That's fine. But this should be a safe amount to be giving and a consistent amount to be able to give for tubing. Don't feed a cold puppy and don't feed cold milk, both of which can cause them not to be able to digest, and they can have problems and struggle.

1:13:19

Tube feeding, bottle feeding, take your pick. Tube feeding is easier. It's a little safer, but I think people are afraid of it. It does require extra technology and stuff. I think if you're a bottle person and you can have a system down, that's great, but if you have a litter of 12 puppies and you're trying to rotationally feed them, it's a lot more time intensive. Tube feeding is just super slick once you get used to it. I'm not a fan of the makeup sponge. So they can't actually create suction. It does work for passive ingestion, and puppies will take to it. So I'm not saying you can't use it. You're just running a little risk for pneumonia and getting things down the wrong pipes. I definitely don't recommend force feeding puppies. You've got all the tools right there to do tube feeding. You've got a syringe in your hand. Might as well just be doing controlled feeding and not risking, again, aspiration and the puppy dying from that. So I have a tube feeding video. We won't play it because I know we're a little bit behind, but if you go on YouTube and type in revival and tube feeding puppy, something like that, you will get a video that is by Dr. Marty Greer, who is somebody that's quite known and respected in our community for being kind of a veterinary resource for a lot of people. He has produced some videos that help with technique, and it's amazing! You can really teach yourself off the videos. If you're not super comfortable, there are some vets that would teach you how to do this. There's plenty of vets that don't know how to do this. So I would see what you have available. 

Your friends may be able to give you some advice and lessons, but essentially, the supplies you need, syringes. It's a newborn litter. You're usually going to be one mil per ounce of puppy. Well, if you have Bruiser, giant puppies, if you got English Mastiffs, well, yeah, you might reach for like, a 20 cc syringe to start. Most of us, a 12 is perfect, because we'll have enough air in there to be able to flush the milk through the syringe. We don't want to be totally full, the syringe itself. So like, basically, if you have a five ounce puppy, and you're going to want to use five ounces to feed it, you just want to make sure your syringe has some extra space in it so that you can maneuver a little bit easier. I would say, depending on the size of the puppy, really little puppies, we might use the five syringe. Most puppies, we might use an eight. I bet with your giant breeds, we could go 10 or 12 and it wouldn't be uncomfortable for them. That tends to be a good range of size. But I think having, again, a five or an eight in a kit would be a good idea. Make sure you have either a cape or a sharpie to mark the end of how far you want to put your tube in, which, again, is shown on that video if you guys want to review that. The other things are just like we talked about, things like scissors, coffee mug to manage your milk sample, and cleaning supplies for the tubes themselves. Don't forget to clean these tubes. We certainly don't want old milk to be sitting in them and growing bacteria that you're then tube feeding puppies past next time. 

Other odds and ends: again, Pro-Pectalin paste is your best brand. It's great for puppies because it's got a tube. It's the paste. You can smear it on the top of their mouth. It's super easy to use. And there's lots of things that cause diarrhea for puppies, right? They can have parasites, they can change milk replacers. They can have all these reasons why they do that, and it's really not good for them to have diarrhea for any amount of time. So I think having Pro-Pectalin handy is good. I always think it's good for anybody to have a liter bag of fluids at home, just in case you need it. Saline is one. You could have LRS. There's all sorts of plasma, light, phyllite, lots of different mix and models and brands. Sodium chloride is the most inexpensive, which is saline, usually. Syringes, needles. Obviously. I like to keep Gas-X on hand. I think sometimes puppies are just collicky and they're just mad, and they'll just scream because they're mad, because they're a little gassy, and that's on my list of catch all. If I have a puppy that's not happy and it's not gaining as well and it's not doing everything like its littermates are doing, I will include that. If they're fussy and they're having a hard time nursing.

And then antibiotics. If you have some, great. Make sure you're communicating to your vet, because sometimes you can do more harm than good by including something like that, especially for like a diarrhea puppy. Well, I'm not going to use clavamox drops for diarrhea, personally. That's not going to be how I'm going to approach things. And some argument the injectable type of cephalosporin that is preferred for antibiotic treatment, which your vet might provide you as injections, rather than a liquid that you're going to be given.

1:18:03

So basically, just a review. Being prepared is always the best thing, right? It could save a life. Sometimes it can save the dam’s life, if you have a little bit of extra prep in hand. But usually we're talking about puppy lives here. There's so much stuff out there, and there's so many different opinions on how to do it right. And I think the reality is none of us do it perfectly. We're all just kind of making it up. And some things work better for some people and some work better for other people. And there's nothing wrong with that. You do get what you pay for, if you're buying more advanced options for monitoring. So just keep in mind, you know, it's going to feel like sticker shock when you buy it, but it's probably better off if you get the good one. And then certainly ask your vet if there's any individual recommendations. They know your dog, they know your history. They know some of the things that I might not know as kind of a general speaker here, and don't forget the YouTube video on the tube feeding instructions or getting some lessons from your vet if you think that you need to do some supportive feeding. It's just a skill that a lot of people are afraid of, and I think it's really easy to learn. You just need some practice. So thank you, Nicole. I'm sorry you guys that we went over like a whole half hour.

Nicole Engelman  1:19:12

Don't apologize. I think everyone loves all of the information. You answered so many of our questions, which is great, but if you have time, you do have, I think, three. So we have two about sterilization. One of them is asking what you recommend using to sterilize a thermometer between uses? 

Dr. Andrea Hesser, DVM, DACT  1:19:31

Okay, I would say soap and water. We're in a clinic. We use alcohol. But I think soap and water is perfectly fine. I think we use alcohol because it's convenient and a little bit less taxing on that instrument. If that makes sense, like, a lot of times, at least in the clinic, we will just use a gauze and some alcohol and clean the surface because we'll set it like on the edge or something, and have like the tip and some Clorox or something like that. It's not wrong to do that, but it could just as easily get kicked into the pool, I guess. 

Nicole Engelman  1:20:05

And then related to that, is there a type of disinfectant solution that you would recommend, generally?

Dr. Andrea Hesser, DVM, DACT  1:20:10

A great question. So it depends on what you're disinfecting for. But if we're talking about the whelping box area, personally, I use a simple, green, all purpose disinfectant that is lower—I don't know, at least it's marketed to be—a little bit less caustic, chemically. Like, I wouldn't use anything with bleach unless you're having issues. Like, if you're having viral issues, you're concerned about something like that. There are some specific quad cleaners that are for parvoviral sterilizations. That's what we'll use in the clinic, like on metal surfaces and things and stethoscopes and all sorts of things that we use for parvo. Hopefully, that's not something any of you guys ever have to deal with, but it is the reality. So your cleaning measures will have to be different if you have something more serious like that going on. As far as the basic stuff, like, if you have coccidia in the environment, say, in the yard, and you're worried about her bringing it back and forth, I mean, some people really like foot baths, but keeping her as clean as possible and being sanitary about handling as much as you can, I think, is the best way to go. I mean, soap and water goes a long way. The best sterilization—the best thing in the world—is the sun to kill bacteria and kill anything transmittable. If you've gotten the material off of whatever it is, letting something kind of big in the sun is never wrong either. I know it's not practical for like, in the middle of a whelping scenario, you're probably not going to have that opportunity. But maybe between whelpings, if you had a couple weeks off between a couple of the girls that you had bred, yeah, I would lean it out on the barn and, like, let the sun do its job in between two, personally. But, yeah, there's not something specific. But I would say a lot of people like things that provide a lot of odor mixing. But I think it just depends. I think that's more common in kennels, true kennels like for adult dogs. Because there's more smell. As long as you're keeping the bedding changed and keeping them clean, they're usually good about keeping their puppies clean, or that you're doing that part for them, and you're able not to kind of have that spoil their immediate environment. 

Nicole Engelman  1:22:18

Awesome. Yeah, it sounds like there are a lot of options. What works for you, which is a great answer. And then for our last question here, it's a very small question, but I feel like it could be helpful for people to know: Is there a specific type of glove that you recommend, like vinyl or latex, or does it not matter at all? 

Dr. Andrea Hesser, DVM, DACT  1:22:38

Yeah. So obviously, if you're allergic to latex, don't buy latex gloves. We usually buy powder free. So powder gloves are easier to get on. That's why that's powdered is to, like, keep the glove from sticking to itself and sticking to your hand if you're trying to put it on. But powder free, I think is better, just because I don't know, I just imagine there's, like, some particulate stuff that's on you that maybe could be aerosolized or ingested. I don't have a brand in mind, but I will say I'm not super picky. I'm not allergic to latex. I don't use a lot of gloves, if you want to know. Like if I'm in a whelping box scenario, if I'm rubbing puppies or something like that, I don't usually have gloves on. So if that is your preference, I think it's totally fine. There's nothing wrong with it. Be very careful with if you're handling fetal fluids and placentas and things. So say you're delivering, and maybe that's why. I mean, you can use gloves from that perspective, but I don't know. I guess I've whelped enough litters. It's a dirty job, and you're not going to hurt them. It's more to keep yourself clean. But many people will not think about if, say, you have a Golden Retriever that really wants the placenta, and you keep the placenta primer, and you put it in the trash, and you've handled that with gloves, and then you took the gloves off, you put them in the trash, and she goes into the trash and tries to get that placenta, she might eat one of the gloves. So just be very careful if you're handling things at that stage, that they don't get eaten and become a foreign body. That would not be good. 

Nicole Engelman  1:24:04

Yeah, definitely not good. Also, I think that was our last question. Thank you for answering that one, and thank you so much for giving us so much bonus time with this presentation. So Dr. Hesser, thank you so much for your time. This was such a great presentation, such a great way for us to end our year of educational webinars. So thank you again. This was so great. 

Dr. Andrea Hesser, DVM, DACT  1:24:26

You're welcome. Happy holidays, everybody. 

Nicole Engelman  1:24:27

Thank you, and thank you to everyone for joining. Thank you for all the great questions you asked. And one last thing I will leave everyone with before I let everyone go enjoy their afternoon, is that we are one week away officially from our Sixth Annual Breeder Appreciation Holiday Party! That's going to be on December 11 at 7pm eastern on Facebook Live, and it is just a really great way to end the year with the Good Dog team and your fellow breeders. We’re gonna have tons and tons of giveaways, including a whelping box. So if this presentation didn't entice you to think about adding a new whelping box to your kennel, I hope that our holiday party will. So please RSVP for that, if you haven't already. And we're looking forward to seeing everyone there, but until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of their day and rest of their week, and we'll see everyone soon. Thank you, everyone. Bye.

Nicole Engelman  1:25:18

Thank you for listening to the Good Dog Pod. We'll be back in two weeks with another episode, so be sure to subscribe to the Good Dog Pod on your favorite podcast platform.